I watched IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS for the first time at night at home in the dark. I do not recommend this. Tho' it is a thought-provoking film, and poking a little gentle fun at the horror genre and how seriously people take it, it, well, it scared the hell out of me! (Of course, so did Nancy Drew books as a teenager.....) Reality isn't what it used to be...

The movie begins with P.I. John Trent (My Man Sam) locked away in a padded cell. The film traces the events leading up to this, by way of his telling a shrink the story. When he finishes his tale, the movie continues on to the inevitable conclusion....or does it?

The tale begins with Trent being hired by a publishing firm CEO (played by Charlton Heston) to find a missing author, horror novelist Sutter Cane. Tho' Trent believes it to be a publicity stunt, he takes the case. The nation is being plagued by waves of violence linked to readers of Cane's books, so by way of research, Trent begins to read the novels.

The firm sends Cane's agent along with him as Trent begins his search. Linda Styles (played by Julie Carmen) refuses at first to admit that the disappearence was staged, but when Trent discovers Cane's fictional town of Hobb's End, Styles is mystified. She admits to the publicity stunt, but, frightened, tries to convince Trent that Hobb's End, and the people in it, are not supposed to exist.

Lived Any Good Books Lately? Trent himself is experiencing strange, bizarre and even horrifying events, but with his sceptical investigator's mind, he refuses to admit it has anything to do with the supernatural. When he finally discovers Sutter Cane, (Jurgen Prochnow) poking away at a typewriter, he is simply trying to get out of the village of the damned. Cane tells Trent that the violence is indeed linked to his books, that whatever he writes comes true, and the world is now his. Trent, of course, doesn't believe him. Who would? What about, Trent asked, the ones who don't read the books? There's always the movie coming out, Cane tells him gleefully.

Partially convinced, Trent is allowed to leave. His companion, Styles, refuses to go with him. She can't leave Hobb's End, she tells him, because she's "read to the end of the book." Trent leaves the village and makes his way back to the "real world". On the way, the author enters Trent's mind with more proof that, indeed, Sutter Cane controls reality.

Once there, he finds more strange events have happened. The violence has escalated, spread throughout, and in a more personal event, the publishing firm denies that Linda Styles ever existed, and that they never sent her out with Trent. Trent slowly realizes that she's been written out of the story, and with that belief, gives himself over to the madness.

Trent's descent into madness brings us full circle, to the beginning of the film, and the beginning of his story. He is dragged in a straightjacket into a padded cell. ("sorry about the balls!") ("oh no, not the Carpenters!")

When his psychiatrist does not return, Trent breaks out his cell to find the world destroyed. Sutter Canes' madness had indeed taken over the world. Trent wanders the body strewn streets with a kind of manical joy, and makes a beeline for the movie theater. Now playing is, of course, Sutter Cane's latest, and Trent gets a front row seat to a perpetual showing.

And as the movie within the movie begins, and John Trent watches John Trent begin the story anew, you realize that the circle will never end, and the true horror has yet to begin.

BACK TO MY MAN SAM. Some pictures provided by the The Official Sam Neill Homepage Thanks!